Jennifer McCarter
Headquarters, Washington, DC                  February 23, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1639)

Eileen M. Hawley
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

RELEASE:  98-33

SHUTTLE VETERANS DEPART NASA

     Astronauts Jerry M. Linenger, M.D., (Capt., USN), Blaine L. 
Hammond (Col., USAF) and M. Rhea Seddon, M.D., have retired from 
NASA to pursue private interests.

     Linenger, who lived aboard the Mir space station for 122 days 
from January to May 1997, has retired from NASA.  He arrived at 
the Mir as a member of the STS-81 crew and returned with the STS-
84 crew, logging 132 consecutive days in space during those 
combined missions.  Selected as an astronaut in 1992, his first 
space flight was on board Discovery for STS-64, an 11-day mission, 
in 1994.

     Hammond retired from NASA and the Air Force to join a private 
aerospace firm in California.  He was selected as an astronaut in 
1984 and is a veteran of two Shuttle flights.  He served as the 
pilot on STS-39, the first unclassified Department of Defense 
mission in 1991, and again as pilot for STS-64, an 11-day mission 
in 1994 to study the atmosphere and the Earth's environment.  

     Seddon, one of the first six women selected as astronauts in 
1978, retired to pursue a private career.  She is a veteran of  
three space missions, accumulating 722 hours in space.  She flew 
first on STS 51-D in April 1985 on a mission to deploy two 
commercial satellites.  Seddon then flew on two life science 
research missions, Spacelab Life Sciences 1 and 2, in 1991 and 
1993.   From September 1996 through November 1997, she was 
detailed to Vanderbilt University Medical School in Nashville, TN, 
to assist in developing experiment protocols for the Neurolab 
mission set for an April 1998 launch.

     "Jerry, Blaine and Rhea contributed greatly to the success of 
the missions they flew," said David C. Leestma, director of Flight 
Crew Operations. "We wish them the best of luck in their new ventures."

     For information on Linenger, Hammond, Seddon or any NASA 
astronaut, see the NASA Internet biography homepage at URL:  
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/

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